The field of Progressive Conservative leadership candidates is winnowing itself down, with a number of potential players taking themselves out of the race.

Conservative Senator Scott Tannas announced Monday he won’t run for the Tory leadership — a position that currently comes with the job of Alberta premier — just a week after supporters put up a website aimed at drafting him for the party’s top job.

Former PC party president Bill Smith, who had been contemplating a leadership bid, also told the Herald on Monday he’s decided not to throw his hat in the ring.

And Calgary MP and junior cabinet minister Michelle Rempel — who had been on many provincial Tories’ wish lists — said she won’t run for the job.

Rempel said she had been approached by some provincial PC members about a campaign, but is focused on running again federally in the new riding of Calgary Nose Hill.

“I’ve been asked but I think everybody in Alberta is being asked right now,” she said with a laugh from Ottawa.

Rempel said she strives for good relations with both provincial PCs and Wildrose Party members, and plans to stay neutral in the Tory race.

Lethbridge College political scientist Faron Ellis said each of the three candidates would have brought certain strengths to the race, but all had issues that factored against them running.

With former premier Alison Redford pushed out of the leadership in part over issues of entitlement, running as a senator would have been a major drawback for Tannas given the recent scandals in the upper chamber, said Ellis.

Smith would have suffered from a lack of name recognition with the public, he said, while it would make little sense for the 34-year-old Rempel — widely viewed as a federal up-and-comer — to give up a ministerial post to make a run for the politically hazardous job of PC leader.

“Even if you succeed, this could be a short-term gig,” Ellis said. “It could be career terminal.”

The PC leadership came open with Redford’s sudden resignation March 23. A new leader will be selected by party members in September, while Dave Hancock serves in the interim.

A number of provincial cabinet ministers and other politicians have expressed interest in the post, but Ellis said the major question mark for Tories is the decision of a couple of political heavyweights — former finance minister Jim Dinning and, especially, former federal Conservative cabinet minister Jim Prentice.

Ellis said Dinning, who lost in the 2006 PC leadership race, is unlikely to run, but Prentice would be the overwhelming favourite if he enters the contest.

“(Prentice) would immediately attract all sorts of talent and organizational skills and a ton of memberships and he’d be seen as the saviour of the party,” he said.

Prentice left the Harper cabinet in 2010 to become vice-chairman of CIBC, and recently accepted a post with Enbridge as the company’s point person in dealing with First Nations around the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.

Prentice has not returned several messages left by the Herald, nor has Dinning.

Smith, a Calgary lawyer who oversaw the last Tory leadership race in 2011 as party president, said Monday he had been weighing a run.

“It wasn’t the right time,” said Smith, who anticipates he will likely endorse and work for another candidate when the race is underway.

Tannas, a High River businessman who founded Western Financial Group, had been reluctant from the start and said Monday his heart wasn’t into pursuing the PC leadership.

“It is going to be a difficult, difficult task, in my view, to undertake all of the things that occur in that job,” he said.

“You have party renewal. There is no question that there is a real appetite amongst Albertans to see real change in government. There are folks that have been there a long time that need to go.”

Tannas said his friend, Municipal Affairs Minister Ken Hughes, who is openly considering whether to run, is someone to watch.

Justice Minister Jonathan Denis, who is also testing the waters for a leadership bid, said Monday he wasn’t surprised the three potential candidates decided not to run, but hopes for a broad field of contenders.

“It will be better if there are more than one or two running, because that will draw support from a lot of different areas,” said Denis, who will make a decision after the legislative sitting ends in April.

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